The Unsafest Place in the World
by RileyMLG
Summary: Harry and Ginny debate if Hogwarts is safe, or if it ever was, for that matter.


The thought of his children going away to school never frightened him- for they were safe, surely, at Hogwarts. Harry kept this view until after witnessing his only daughter and youngest child waving frantically out of the window before the steam fogged her shape and the train burst out of sight. It was then that he turned to his wife.

"Ginny," he started, thinking heavily, "do you think they'll be alright?"

"What? Of course, Harry, don't be mad. James has survived three years already, I think they'll all make it."

"Is Hogwarts really safe, though?" he pressed.

She looked at him curiously. "Of course." she repeated. "What are you on about?"

"Hagrid told me Hogwarts was one of the safest places in the world. Ron, Hermione, and I had to get past a three-headed dog and a giant chess board and Voldemort just in our first year."

Ginny looked taken aback. Harry didn't exactly like talking about his childhood, or lack thereof.

"They told us Hogwarts was back to normal in second year and then you were taken into the chamber."

She looked uncomfortable as they apparated home, waving goodbye to Ron, who awkwardly comforted Hermione, as she was crying a bit after seeing Hugo off. "Harry, don't worry about it, they'll be fine," she insisted, though she looked a little unsure herself.

"In third year, aside from the dementors, Sirius Black, the most wanted criminal in the wizarding world and who they thought to give information leading to the murder my parents, broke into the castle. What if Sirius really was a loony? We'd had to have fought him, yeah?"

Sighing, Ginny plopped down on the couch. "I'm sure the kids won't have to fight a criminal-"

"Won't they? They said I didn't have to fight a criminal- they said that Hogwarts was too safe, that he couldn't get in."

"But Sirius wasn't a criminal." she snapped.

Harry pressed on. "Fourth year, I had to battle a dragon. Although, if anything, Hermione would have been the one to go, she'd been staying up for days on end to help me prepare. And then after some other lethal stuff, which kind of seemed unimportant at the point because we were so used to it by then, Cedric dies and Voldemort's back."

"That didn't happen inside Hogwarts, Harry." she reminded, though looking a little sick herself.

"Fifth year, Umbridge used those blasted quills on us and Hagrid's brother almost stepped on us loads of times. Then we left for the Ministry, though Hogwarts-aged students shouldn't be allowed to do such things."

"That's not the school's fault, we weaseled a way into leaving, remember?"

Harry paced around the living room of the cottage in Godric's hollow. "Who's not to say James, Al, and Lily will do the same?"

His wife looked distinctly uncomfortable with that thought as she tucked her legs beneath her and her gaze dropped to the family portrait that smiled and laughed silently back at her.

"Sixth year, that bloody potions book giving me Dark curses and people getting poisoned all around. Then Dumbledore and I barely get out alive from the cave, after which Dumbledore actually does die. At Hogwarts."

"Harry, stop," Ginny protested weakly.

"And then the Battle of Hogwarts," he stated, "appropriately named for its location. How is Hogwarts the safe enough for them? Our own _house_ isn't even safe enough for James, who finds a way to blow everything up when he comes home for the holidays."

"Is anywhere really safe enough for James?"

"No, but still-"

"Harry, all of that only happened because you have the worst luck of anyone I've ever met." she said solemnly.

"Becaus- wait, what?" he looked at her, bewildered.

Ginny laughed. "Maybe being the Chosen One had something to do with it, but face it, Harry, Hogwarts may not be the safest place in the world, but our kids won't have to go through what you went through."

"What we went through. All of us." he corrected.

"Lily come out of me practically hexing and I'm sure James taught Al a fair few jinxes, so none of them have anything to worry about."

"Right."

Ginny suddenly thought of something. "I know I told you before that I didn't want to know, but did you give James the map or Invisibility Cloak?"

Her husband grimaced. "No."

"They can't do much damage to themselves, then, without getting caught." she insisted, looking relieved.

Harry chose not to tell her that they had nicked it.


End file.
